March update!

Mauri!!! ok lets see what has happened....still here on kiritimatiisland...except im not working in Ronton anymore we switched sideswith the elders so now we'll be working in Tabwakea...dont know howlong it'll be like that though cause tabwakea is alot of bush withheaps of back roads and some members were saying its not too safe forus sisters...hence one of the biggest reasons why they dont sendsisters out on outer island...i just told elder moser hey if thefeeling or inspiration you got was for us to work in tabwakea thenlets just do it...so i dont know if he'll just keep it like this forthe next 6 weeks or what...but im pretty excited for the whole newchange thing...it'll be cool to get to know the people on thatside...as well as the members...and to be honest i think ill beleaving this island soon and get transferred to Tarawa...so i thinkthis lil move is just a prep for the big move or something...cause ivegotten really attached to these people... Elder and sister moser did a mini zone conference..first one we've hadsince ive been out...probably cause there is one 4 of us missionarieshere other than the senior couple...the Theme was REACHING THE ONE!!! a grandfather told his grandson to get him a dirty basket of waterand so he did but by the time he got to his grandfather the basket was emptythe grandfather told his grandson to get him a basket of water againand eachtime he got to him the basket was emptyso eachtime he would try to run faster hoping to have some water by the timehe reached his grandfather, the grandson finally fed up asked hisgrandfather whyhe doesnt just get a bucket of water,and he just told him to get himanother basket of water, and so he did when he got back he realizedthat the basket wasnt dirty anymore but clean. the grandfather could have easily told his grandson to get him abucket of water or to just clean the dirty basket...but how easy wouldthat be....he knew that if he would of told him that...he would havemissed the whole purpose of the lesson...lil by lil that dirty basketbecame clean...that story reminds me of one of our investigators hername is Eritabeta. very strong catholic and only took lessons atfirst cause she was just being nice...we taught her prayer and wewould ask her to pray and she wouldnt..kept teaching her though...ithink we taught her for like 5 months..taught her everything that wecould possibly think..after 5 or 6 months of teaching her...after oneof our lessons we asked her again if she would be happy to pray...andshe did...i have to say that was probably one of the mostbeautifullest prayers ive ever heard...the spirit there was just sointense...it was way awesome...we may not be the ones to baptizeher...but lil by lil i have no doubts that this lady will be a memberof the church and a strong one...but before we could reach out toanyone else we need to reach within ourselves first...the savior saidbring one sould unto me...that one soul could you!!! I just love this work...sometimes i think that i cant believe i almostdidnt want to come on my mission...it may have taken me awhile tofinally decide but i did and i did it for myself which makes thiswhole experience just that much more sweeter..especially with beingout here in the jungle...lol... MARSHALL ISLAND MAJURO MISSION THEME: FAITH IS THE POWER OBEDIENCE IS THE PRICE LOVE IS THE MOTIVE SPIRIT IS THE KEY CHRIST IS THE REASON i just love it...cause faith really is the power i know if it werentfor my faith i would not be here right now..obedience really is theprice cause it isnt always easy to be obedient...love is the motivecause we love these people so much it motivates us to go out there andhelp our brothers and sisters here....and the spirit is the key causewe need the spirit to touch the hearts of those we comeacross...christ is the reason speaks for itself... I hope you all have a fun spiritual week and i continue to pray for you all!!!! I tangiria ngkami ni kabane!!!!!! Sister Toki

Comfort of the Gospel

Mauri everyone!!!
This past week was probably the hardest week ive had since ive been out on the mission. Alil back ground so you can understand why. Well there is this family the parents are Naintinwa and Sesenga. They have 5 kids out of the 5 only 1 is their own the other 4 they adopted. plus a bunch of other kids that live at their house and look to them as parents. their oldest daughter Kampoua is a branch missionary that works with my companion and i, so we've gotten really close with this family. so close to the point that we call them mom and dad and when they introduce us to people they introduce us as their daughters. Their youngest son Teitikai they got when he was only a few months old. Sesenga said that his dad was a drunk and he just came one day and asked her to keep his son. So they've had him ever since. Teitikai is blind and mentally sick. They do everything for him feed him bathe him and change his diaper. Its funny though cause even in his situation he was really smart. you'd have to see him to get what im saying. I love to watch him play when he just laughs i always think i wonder who he is seeing and think that he is so lucky...well on tuesday after language study we got news that Teitikai had died. My sister kampoua went to wake him up to feed him and he was already gone. It was so shocking cause i had just seen him the day before playing. It was so hard to hold back tears espcially when we got to the house and i seen him laying there. He looked so handsome and like he was just sleeping. he would have been 8 this year. it was just really hard cause ive gotten so close to this family that teitikai i see him like as if he is lawrence or liam. Mom remember when i wrote bella that story bout me reading stories to that one girl. well she is one of the kids from this family. so that can pretty much tell you guys how close i am with this family. We had his burial on wed. it was really nice simple funeral. im trying to hold back tears right now just emailing you guys. so grateful for this gospel though cause i know that i'll be able to see him again. sesenga always says that she is just so glad that they are all sealed together. as sad as we were we were also very happy. the dad intinwa would always say teitikai is so lucky i wish i was like him. cause he has no worries at all. we all miss very much.
to top it off i said in my last email that president smith was goin to be comin here next month to kiritimati but the got delayed. cause his daughter just got into a terrible car accident. and she had some head injuries and broke her wrist and i think bones in her face or something like that. sister smith just got to her like a day or 2 ago. sister moser told us that they are mostly looking out that the swelling in her head hasnt done any brain damage yet. but they said so far she is responding well...so we just hope that she continues to heal up well. so please if you guys could please pray for my presidents family im sure they'd greatly appreciate it as well as i.
bout the mission though my comp and i have baptism on saturday. 3 lil boys. 2 brothers Eria and Takai ages 10 and 9. and then Tipereti age 14. Eria and Takai have to be 2 of the smartest kids. Tipereti really cool kid we were teaching a kid at his house and we went for our appointment one day but the other guy wasnt there we were bout to leave when Tipereti was like "what about me?" teach me!!!...cool huh!!!..so thats the update from here...i love you all!!!
sister toki

quick update!

WELCOME WELCOME SABBATH MORNING!!!...I KNOW ITS PROBABLY AFTERNOON THERE BUT HOPE THAT YOUR SABBATH HAS BEEN A GOOD ONE..OURS WAS FOR SURE..WE JUST GOT 3 NEW INVESTIGATORS ALL IN ONE DAY..WHICH WE WERE REALLY NEEDED..CAUSE OUR TEACHING POOL WAS GETTING KINDA LOW AGAIN..WELL KINDA...CAUSE SCHOOL STARTED BACKUP AGAIN STARTING FROM 2 ON OUR DAY IS PRETTY PACKED..CAUSE WERE TEACHING ALOT OF SCHOOL AGEDKIDS...SO LAST WEEK NO 2 WEEKS AGO OUR DISTRICT LEADER WAS SICK AND HIS COMPANION LEAD OUR DISTRICTMEETING...AND HE TALKED ON GETTING OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE..CAUSE HE DID ESPECIALLY WITH OUR DL BEING SICK HE DIDNT THINK HE'D HAVE TO DO THAT JOB FOR A LIL WHILE LONGER..SO I TOOK HIS ADVICEAND STEPPED OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE WHEN IT COMES TO TEACHING LESSONS IN KIRIBATI..MY COMP HAD ME TEACH IF NOT ALL MOST OF OUR LESSONS THE PAST 2 WEEKS..IT WAS SCARY BUT I DID IT..I WAS ACTUALLY SHOCKED AT HOW MUCH OF THE LANGUAGE I KNEW AND THAT THE PEOPLE WERE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND ME..NOW GRANTED I MESSED UP ALIL HERE AND THERE...BUT HOW ELSE AM I GOIN TO GET THIS LANGUAGE DOWN IF I DONT USE IT RIGHT??.. I THINK THE EVEN FUNNIER THING IS THAT MONDAY BEFORE WE HAD OUR TRAININGMISSION PRESIDENT RANDOMLY ASKED ME HOW MY LANGUAGE WAS COMING ALONG..I WAS LIKE SECRETLY FREAKING OUT LIKE OH MY GOSH PRESIDENT IS GOIN TO BE HERE IN A MONTH...WHAT IS HE GOIN TO DO WITH ME???WHY IS HE ASKIN ME THIS..MY COMP WAS LIKE YUP THATS WHAT HE ASKED ME BEFORE AND THEN MADE MEA TRAINER...SHE KEPT ASKIN ARE YOU SCARED??..AND I WAS LIKE NO..BUT I REALLY WAS..BUT DIDNT WANTTO SHOW HER...HAHAHAH...BUT NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT...IT IS REALLY SOMETHING TO LAUGH ABOUTCAUSE YOU SHOULD ONLY BE SCARED IF YOU ARENT READY...BUT IM READY..READY TO TAKE ON ANYTHINGPRESIDENT PUTS INFRONT OF ME...HAHAHA...WATCH HIM THROW SOMETHING AT ME THAT IM NOT READY FOROH MAN I WILL FREAKIN CRY IF THAT HAPPENS...HAHAHA...I JUST LOVE OUR INVESTIGATORS...THEY ARESO AWESOME...MAN ITS GOIN TO BE HARD TO LEAVE THIS PLACE..SERVING IN 1 AREA FOR GOIN ON 6 MONTHSYOU GET PRETTY CLOSE WITH THESE PEOPLE...THIS HAS TO BE THE BEST MISSION EVER!!!...THAT LASTLINE IS GOIN MOSTLY TO YOU ASHLEY!!!..HAHAHA...CHICAGO AINT GOT NOTHING ON MY LIL DARK PEOPLEI MEAN IF ITS ANYTHING PROBABLY JUST HEIGHT...LOL...WELL HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEK. LOVE YOUR FAVE. SISTER MISSIONARY IN KIRITIMATI SISTER TOKI

A missionary christmas on Kiritimati Island!

well....we started on thursday on christmas eve...we missionaries got together and had dinner...but we werent sure what time we were goin to have dinner cause our power goes off from noon-6 and the senior couple had a turkey but wasnt sure when we were goin to back it...so we left that day open...we ended up baking it in the morning and then we'll just warm it up @ dinner time...so around noon...we got together to have a piece of pumpkin pie and to exchange our white elephant gifts...we decided to do white elephants cause it'd be more fun especially in a place like this...how we did ours was we played a game of spoons and if you were the first to get out then you'd be last to pick your gift and so we just did it in that order i won the game so i got to pick my gift first...i got kool-aid which i was happy with cause you cant find kool-aid over here...my companion and i gave the most random gifts ever...1 gift that we put together had 1 diaper ,a sippy cup,baby food, and this lil chinese hat that we found @ the lil thirft we used it as a bonnet cause we couldnt find it...our district leader got that gift...and then the other one we put together had...this tie-dye looking skirt we found from the thrift store, pink hair things, lipstick, and these purple barret type things that have lil beads hanging from it that you would find on a fobs lil daughters hair...lol..and this bra type thing thats made out of the fala stuff...you know the falas that they weave not the chinese falas...lol...and elder moser the senior couple is the one who picked that gift...it was really fun...after that we played hide-n-go seek.. us sisters the elders and elder moser...so funny cause we live on church grounds right behind the church so we were playing around there...elder moser of course has keys to everything...so he went and opened up the mens bathroom and hide in there...we couldnt find him anywhere...and none of us missionaries thought the bathroom cause the doors were locked...we finally yelled out his name and he pops his head out and says " i win cause i hide the best" we all just started laughing cause only him can use his keys open the door and hide in the bathroom..it was really fun...new years was fun too...we got together with the branch missionaries...so funny cause the senior couple started counting down @ and they were like " 60, 59 58 57..."..and all the branch missionaries were looking @ them like what the heck...no one started counting with them until they got to 10 9 8...lol...my comp was trying to count with the couple but instead of going down her numbers kept getting bigger and bigger...i was like ok if she is having a hard time and she grew up in americe i can only imagine these guys tryin to count backwards from 60 to 1....lol....it was fun...and now onto the spiritual note...lol... OUR LAST BAPTISM WAS 2 LIL BOYS THEY'RE BROTHERS IOTEBWA AND BEIA...THEY GOT BAPTIZED ON CHRISTMAS DAY!!!...AND THEN WE HAVENT HAD ANOTHER ONE SINCE BUT WE'RE HOPING TO HAVE ONE THIS SATURDAY ALIL GIRL NAMED ELIZABETH...WITH THE HOLIDAYS ITS BEEN KINDA HARD FOR US TO MEET WITH OUR PEOPLE CAUSE THEY ALL HAVE STUFF GOIN ON BUT NOW THAT THE HOLIDAYS ARE OVER HOPEFULLY WE CAN PICK THINGS BACK UP AGAIN...YESTERDAY ALL OF US FULL TIME MISSIONARIES WENT OUT TO VISIT THE POLAND UNIT...ITS LIKE A 2 HOUR DRIVE FROM WHERE WE STAY...SO WE LEFT RIGHT AFTER OUR BLOCK AND GOT THERE BOUT ALMOST 4...VERY SMALL UNIT...THERE WAS ONLY LIKE 11 PEOPLE THERE OTHER THAN US FULL TIME MISSIONARIES...THAT WAS A NICE EXPERIENCE TO SEE THE CHURCH STARTING THERE...THINK LIKE BACK IN JOSEPH SMITH TIME WHEN THEY WOULD MEET @ SOMEONES HOUSE FOR CHURCH...THATS WHAT IT WAS LIKE...THEY USED A COOLER FOR THEIR SACRAMENT TABLE...AND THEY KEEP THE HYMN BOOKS AND OTHER STUFF IN THERE...IT WAS REALLY COOL...TO SEE THE CHURCH @ ITS BEGINNING POINT OVER THERE..

Clumsy Umpalumpa!

Well here is a story.. well.. a moment that my sisters like to call "Brittles moment".. like a blonde moment but its a "me" moment.. anyways...so every monday we play sports w/the branch missionaries and our investigators. after our games my comp and i were walking w/ one of the members and her son and lil sister inlaw to get water...the son is like 4 and the sis inlaw is like 11.. i was playing w/ the kids and i started running to the lil boy when my foot hit a rock and i straight dived into the ground rolled over and jumped up as fast as i could...good thing it was getting dark...hence whole reason why i fell cause i didnt see the rock...and the only people that saw was my comp and the member and the 2 kids...we could not stop laughing...we were laughing so hard we almost peed our pants...went home and cleaned my left knee cause i hurt it...got up tuesday and changed the bandage...came home tuesday night and i had to have my comp. rip off the gauze cause it was stuck to the flesh...that hurt cause it took off whatever was stuck to it...so i just cleaned it and put polysporin on it and left it open...wednesday came and that thing was infected as...went to a members house and they said to put papaya on it...and told me to bring another one the next day and they'll change it...so my comp. and i got up thursday i went to get a papaya from the tree...so i picked up this big rock and threw it up at the tree missed the papaya but hit the branch...i ducked from rock and as i was ducking the dumb thing fell and hit me staight on the back...i was laughing at myself...then my comp. found this old moldy coconut and tried the get the papaya. she threw the coconut missed the papaya but some nasty thing from the coconut got all on her face...hahaha..we were finaly smart and went and got the broom stick to get the papaya down...of course my comp had to hit it cause even w/ the broom stick i still couldnt reach it...but we finally got it and the papaya really did work...moral of the story is that i know that this church is true and that joseph smith did restore this church....hahahahaha....jk...moral of the story is dont run in places where the side walk is dirt and they have huge boulders that can make you fall...and if ever you get a cut or anything put some papaya on it....hahaha....love you alll.....